Why Mess With A Turntable?

[gillsev]

In this age of instant gratification and convenience, why are still some of us going the extra mile to play a record, when you can just pop in a CD and forget it. Why mess with the cleaning of vinyl and tolerate clicks and pops when you can get the "perfect" sound with full dynamic range from digital?

Sure, if it was just convenience I am after (besides the "cleaner" sound), I will choose digital - no question. But I think that is besides the point to my enjoyment. For me personally, listening is just 70% of my enjoyment. The other 30% goes to seeing. When I observe my turntable, I like watching my record against a massive platter (as it builds momentum) and maintaining its inertia on this dynamically balanced flywheel. The tonearm that does the "real job" of extracting the music from its fine grooves is like a fine musical instrument just as a bow would extract a note from strings.

The automatic function would just be a bonus, but not really equivalent to my initial appreciation mentioned above. I do however use my Garrard Lab 80 more than my manual FrankenThorens for nostalgic reasons.

A record player is a work of art that you can appreciate visually while listening to music.
Here is my FrankenThorens as my backup TT (with Rega RB300 tonearm) sporting a Red 2M Ortofon ...